Dec 31, 2016

The final race of 2016 would see the RC Pit Box team travel to Swindon for round 4 of the Nitro X Cross Winter series. It was a chilly start with temperatures as low as -3 degrees C and we were greeted by a very frosty looking surface.

RC Pit Box were represented by Milan Dragojlovic, Ben Billing, Matt Box, Nathan Powney, Chris Lovell and Elliott Jones and after 4 rounds of qualifying in a tough field of over 70 drivers Milan Dragojlovic would be the top qualifying RCPB driver taking his Maxima powered HB D815v2 to 2nd overall with only the current UK National champion Darren Bloomfield ahead of him. Ben Billing would qualify just behind Milan in 3rd with his fine looking Kyosho MP9 TKI4 also powered by Maxima Engines and Fuel. Nathan Powney also driving HB had a great day by lining up 4th overall, Chris Lovell put his Ielasi Tuned Soar Seiki 9th on the grid for the A main out qualifying the boss Matt Box who despite a 5th in round 4 would line up 15th overall with his Soar Seiki powered by the awesome looking SOAR Speedbull engine. Elliott Jones would end the days qualifying in a respectable 39th place with his Novarossi powered Kyosho.

So with Qualifying complete we move on to the finals. First up was Elliott Jones who lined up 5th on the grid in the D final. Elliott had a great start and jumped up to 3rd place tracking a bump up to the C final when unfortunately on lap 19 a rare problem caused Elliott to retire early from the race.

Next up would be Matt Box who lined up 4th in the B Final. Matt would take the lead on lap 3 and take the win after a great battle with Daniel Austin for a large portion of the race. Some great clean and competitive driving from both drivers made this a really good battle with Matt eventually bringing home his Soar Seiki in 1st place to take the bump up into the A main.

So on to the A main! A great achievement from the team to have 5 RCPB drivers in the A final but we all know that to qualify is one thing, to finish and finish well is another!

So as the flag dropped Darren Bloomfield had a great clean start, Milan went wide on the first corner allowing Nathan Powney into second place and Ben Billing held 3rd, however by lap 3 Milan had regained 2nd place and this is how it remained until the first round of pit stops in the 20 minute final. Darren would pit on lap 13 handing the lead to Milan who decided to make just the one stop on the 10 minute mark. The lead would change hands again when Milan made his only stop but when Darren made his 2nd stop Milan would regain the lead. For the last 10 laps of the race we would see a great battle between Milan and Darren, Milan's excellent defensive driving saw him hold off the challenge from Darren and take the win by just .5 of a second! Meanwhile the battle for the final podium place was hotting up. Ben Billing had held 3rd place for the majority of the race but on the final lap Michael Lightfoot made an audacious mid air move to take the 3rd step of the podium by just half a second from Ben! After 20 minutes of racing and some great battles further down the field Nathan powney would come home in 6th place, Matt Box in 12th and Chris Lovell in 13th.

A Final Podium:

The winning combination:

So all in all a great meeting for the RCPB team! What a way to end a very busy 2016!

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